


rome has fallen, and there is ash in the sky

by nonbinarywithaknife (littleboxes)



Series: just let them REST alex [6]
Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Ancient Rome, Canonical Character Death, Friendship/Love, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Loss, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21624523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/pseuds/nonbinarywithaknife
Summary: after the fall of rome, sasha takes a moment to speak to a god.
Relationships: Grizzop drik Acht Amsterdam & Sasha Racket
Series: just let them REST alex [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1514891
Comments: 10
Kudos: 60





	rome has fallen, and there is ash in the sky

It is night. Rome has fallen, and the sky is full of ash, and as she and Cicero ran she tried to collect as many others as she could, but. Well. There are two of them, around a campfire that’s mostly embers, and the sky is full of ash, but somehow, the still moon is shining through. A thin sliver of crescent moon.

Cicero is long asleep. He is snoring, loudly, but even if he weren’t, Sasha wouldn’t be able to sleep. The air is warm, even all the way out here. The warm heat of fire, of lightning, of dragon breath. Rome has fallen and the sky is full of ash and the air is warm and Sasha is _alone._ And the moon hangs in the sky.

She stands up. It hurts. She aches in every place from every thing, aches in her wrists from the ropes, aches in her ribs from the falling rocks, aches in her legs from the running, aches in her lungs, from the running, aches in her heart, from the. The.

Sasha walks away from the pile of embers she’s been staring into, not too far. But far enough. Cicero’s snoring fades away, and the pile of embers is a dot in the distance. The land is flat. There’s nowhere to hide. It would make her nervous, the lack of shadows to hide in, if her nerves weren’t already fried from all the death and the dragons and the witnessing the falling of a civilization. 

She sits cross legged on the ground. Stares up at the sky that is still filled with ash, breathes in a lungful of warm air, and stares at the moon. Pulls out a dagger and just. Holds it. 

“I’m not a- a words. Person. ‘Specially not- not right now. And I’m not a, I don’t really- do. Gods. _D_ _ivine_ , stuff, really. I’m more, heh, _down to earth_. Get it?”

She draws in the dirt with the pommel of the dagger. Not with the tip, no reason to blunt it, _honestly_. Circles and swirls that make her think of Hamid’s spells. She thinks about what she wants to say. There’s no one around, but it still feels. Important. And she really _isn’t_ a words person, but. She can feel these _feelings_ crawling up her throat, wanting out, and there’s the moon in the sky. And it feels important.

“I’m not sure how all this works, not sure if you’d even know him, yet, or if you gods don’t really care ‘bout all that to do with time, and, and things. But Grizzop, he’s- he was one of yours, yeah? A proper paladin. And we didn’t, really, y’know, get into it much, but like, he was a paladin for _you_. And he, he died, bein’ a paladin for you, and he said when people die they go to where their gods are, right? So you- you just. You take care of him, alright?”

It is night, and the sky is filled with ash, and the air is warm, and the land is flat, and Sasha is staring at the dirt with tears in her eyes as she threatens the moon, and for the first time since she watched a civilization fall (seven hours ago), for the first time since she watched a friend fall (seven hours ago), Sasha lets herself cry.

It is not a prayer, exactly, but Artemis hears it anyway. It is a sharp little thing, and Artemis is fond of sharp little things, and so she pauses in her hunt and listens. She listens for one second and two thousand years, and then tilts her head. One of hers has joined her, but he has left people behind. They usually do. They don’t normally speak to her in such a way. She smiles, and it is sharp.

You have good friends, she tells him.

Grizzop looses an arrow and then turns to her. He is smiling, and it is sharp, and there is sadness at its edges. Not regret, but sadness. He too knows what he left behind. 

The hunt continues.

Sasha sits in the dirt and cries until the tears stop coming. Her wrists and her ribs and her legs and her lungs still ache. Her heart still hurts. But it feels less- permanent. Lighter. 

She looks up at the moon, the small sliver of moon that hangs between the ash and the clouds. And for a second, it is gone. For a second, there is a bright, round, full moon shining down, it feels, directly onto her. She blinks, and it’s gone. Blinks, and the thin sliver is back. But it seems- brighter, somehow. Fuller.

Sasha stands up, and puts the dagger away. 

Walks back to the campsite, and pokes at the embers of the fire. 

Breathes in warm air. 

She keeps watch until the early morning, and then wakes Cicero. 

Their walk continues.


End file.
